Is Cheney hinting that Bin Laden is about to be taken out of the freezer?

The Bush administration would "love" to capture 9/11 terror mastermind Osama bin Laden during the remaining 30 days left with it, US Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday.

"Capturing Osama bin Laden is something we clearly would love to do in the 30 days left," Cheney told Fox News in an interview.

Asked if it was a major disappointment for him not to catch bin Laden during his term, Cheney said: "Well I would prefer to have gotten Usama bin Laden the week after 9/11. So would the president."

"I think more important though is what we've been able to do generally to his organisation. Even if you were able to get Osama bin Laden, which clearly we would like to do, you've still got I've had in the past, a strong functioning organisation there," he said.

"He's been holed up in a way where he's not even been communicating and there are questions about whether or not he's even running the operation. But we have had major success against the organisation, Cheney said.

He pointed out that US forces have captured and killed a lot of Al Qaeda members since 9/11.

At the same time, he pointed out that the Bush administration has succeeded in preventing a similar attack on the US since the 9/11.

"As I said, we've prevented further attacks against the United States. But that's probably the most important objective," Cheney, who also backed the controversial policies that had helped protect the country from another terrorist strike, said.

He claimed that the Bush administration had acted appropriately in its "war on terror".